Straight from the Heart (24 page)

I heard Cale telling a funny story about
something that happened to one of his sisters when I wrapped my
arms around him from behind. He jumped nearly a foot in the air,
dropping the pan he had in his hand to the tiled floor. “I didn’t
mean to startle you,” I murmured in the best seductive voice I
could pull off, and he turned around to face me. “Just play along,”
without warning him, my lips met his abruptly, giving Rachel and
the other cooks a show. His hands slipped around to just below my
butt, bringing me closer to feel his rugged body against mine.

As I continued my assault on Cale’s lips, I
peeked around to see Rachel’s mouth dropping and her eyes as big as
baseballs.  How’s that for claiming my boyfriend, huh?

Cale stopped the kiss and looked completely
dazed, stumbling back. “Damn girl, you need to sneak up on me like
that more often,” he joked, and my cheeks went warm. The guys
hooted and hollered at Cale as I kissed him on the cheek and ran
back out onto the floor. Passing Rachel to start wiping down
tables, I could hear her huff.. I had gotten used to girls
blatantly flirting with Cale in front of me. The first show I
played with them it was obvious girls loved that he wasn’t a
complete bad boy, but he could still be a flirty smartass. All
mine.

The last hour of our shift Louisa kept
coming up to me, telling me that Cale could come back anytime he
wanted. I think it was because of his looks, but apparently she
thought he could cook better than the others in the kitchen. I
didn’t want to tell him that because he’d let it go to his head for
sure.

When I was taking off my apron and heading
towards the break room, I saw I had a missed call from an ‘unknown’
number. Actually more than one, it appeared to be about ten. Before
Cale met me back here, I wanted to listen to my voicemails.

“
Bryn Michelle. This is your mother and
father. I understand we have not spoken since the ‘incident’ back
in June. We have been trying to find you to speak to you since
then, but apparently you have been on some sort of an escapade. I
wish you would call us. You need to come back home and stop living
some childhood fantasy that will only last for so long. You need a
stable life Bryn, not shacking it up in a filthy downtown apartment
and on a bus with horrid men you barely know. If you don’t return
our call by tomorrow, we’ll be forced to call police and file a
missing persons report. This has gone on for far too long.”

I felt the tears roll down my face
instantly. Not for the reason that I hadn’t heard my mother’s voice
in months, but for the fact that somehow she knew what I had been
doing since I left. How did she know?
It must’ve been Ethan,
I thought to myself. He was the only person that my parents might
have talked to that knew where I had been.

I had to pull myself together. I could never
speak to them again. No I take that back, it would take me a long
damn time before I ever go back to that house and speak to such
degrading people. Just as I wiped the stray tears for the last
time, Cale knocked on the open door.

“What happened? Are you okay?” He rushed to
my side and knelt down in front of where I was sitting.

Letting out a sniffle, I nodded. “Yeah, it
was just my….uh…parents….”

Cale’s mouth opened and formed an O shape.
‘So you’re saying the parents that treated you like shit your whole
life, finally contacted you after all this time?”

“It wasn’t pleasant. I’ll just leave it at
that.” I snapped, tucking my phone back into my purse and standing
up. “I’m ready to get out of here.”

Before I could leave, Cale blocked the
entranceway. He drew me in for a hug, kissing me on the forehead.
“I’m going to go back to the apartment with the guys. Will you be
okay?”

“I’ll be good. Sleep it off and get back to
work.” I shrugged, walking with Cale hand in hand as he kissed me
goodnight after hurrying to my loft to beat the rain. “Love
you.”

The look in his eyes said it all. His amber
eyes were bright and filled with pure happiness. “I love you too,
Bryn.” Running towards the van, he looked back at me once and
waved. Why was it that just a single wave from Cale Pelton made me
ache between my legs?

Walker stayed true to his word and got ahold
of Richard. By the next Thursday, we were on the riverfront by the
Renaissance Center in Detroit meeting with Richard Marx, music
video guru. Since the meeting with Walker, we had been practicing
every day for hours on end. Tyler fit in really well with the group
the more we played each song. It helped that he was good eye candy
too. He’s already told me stories about how Cale was always trying
to work out extra hard so he could have more muscles than him. I
would never tell Cale that though, I’d turn into another ‘Lucy’
situation.

The Detroit riverfront was so beautiful in
the morning. The sun was just rising in the east, leaving a
reflection on the water, making it as shiny as a new diamond. I
leaned into the railing, my body facing the water, taking in the
early morning smell. Might’ve been the fish in the water, but I had
never woken up and was able to see a view this amazing.

“Nice isn’t it?” Tyler stood beside me,
mimicking my body position. He rested his elbows against the metal
railing, letting out a sigh. “Been down here quite a few times
lately. It never gets old to wake up to a view of the water.”

“I know. It’s nothing like back home. You
don’t see huge boats like those out there floating along. I could
get used to this.” I admitted. Our town was along a river, but most
of the time it was shades of browns, and on a good day maybe
blue.

“It’ll be fun today. Plus Richard’s a good
guy. He’s already been talking about the idea for the video, it
sounds epic.” He patted me on the shoulder and stood up straight.
“Don’t let that guy go. Cale. He lost Lucy because of my stupid
ass, but I promised myself I wouldn’t have feelings for another one
of his girls again. He’d throw me in the damn river with ankle
weights chained to me.” Tyler chuckled, and walked away. I joined
the guys where they were setting up equipment along the
sidewalk.

“It’s good to meet you Bryn. I’m Richard
Marxx.” An older guy, probably in his late 40’s, greeted me. He had
sandy blond hair with a huge goatee that went down to his chest,
and wore a pair of large aviators to cover his eyes.

“Nice to finally meet you.” I smiled
genuinely.

“We’re setting up our first shot now. I want
to get a straight shot of you playing ‘You Were Young’ all the way
through with the riverfront in the background. But mainly be you.
This is your first music video with these crazy boys, so smile,
make faces, whatever works for you.” Richard smiled, showing off a
gold front tooth.

So I got my guitar tuned up, even though the
guys said we didn’t have to technically ‘play,’ just look like
we’re playing along with the song. The first take was shaky for me
to say the least. I was getting used to all of the film crew
standing behind Richard telling us where to stand and how to move,
but after a couple of takes, I was finally getting used to the
camera following every movement I made.

Even though Cale was lip synching through
the mic as the camera pointed directly at him, I could die
listening to his voice.

Once upon a time I thought we were
perfect

Like Romeo and Juliet we were
unstoppable

But little did I know it’d be just a fucking
fantasy

You were playing the damsel in distress so
perfectly

Then you left without a warning…

You were young

Couldn’t know any better

Hearts got so attached

Didn’t know any better

I was in love with this song. From the
moment Cale showed me this song and thanks to Gates suggestion, I
sang lead on some of the lyrics. I knew what the lyrics were about,
and I couldn’t wait to bring his lyrics and music to
life. 

We took a quick water break, and it was back
at it. Almost through the song, I could feel the cameras zooming in
closer on me as I opened my mouth to sing.
I don’t think I’ll
ever get used to that
I thought to myself.

Richard yelled action, and now I was in the
spotlight.

You said it’d be forever

But you were young

And we were too fuckin high

On what we thought was true

I wish it could’ve been you

But the bottle took my place

I continued singing harmony with Cale
through the rest of the song as we played our instruments even
though we really didn’t need to. It helped me get into character,
and by our very last take of the day, my face was beat from being
outside all day.

“This is going to be so good.” Richard
rubbed his hands together, walking up to the group. “Great job
today guys. I think we got everything we needed. I’ll just get the
other bit from your sister, Cale, and I’ll fix it up and be in
touch.” Cale shook Richards hand firmly and told him thank you. We
wanted to add a story to the video, not just us playing by the
Detroit riverfront, so Cale volunteered his younger sister Sadie
and her boyfriend Nate to play the part of the destructive young
couple. I thought it was crazy at the time, but when they explained
it to me how they’d edit the video so it cut from the band to them,
I was sold.

It was getting closer and closer to the
release date of the album. After shooting the video, we decided to
name the album “New Beginnings.” It fit in a way. This was the
first album I recorded with Everlasting, the first time in months
since Tyler has been back, and everything was looking good for us.
Walker kept in contact with us, scheduling interviews with
Alternative Press, Rock Gods Magazine, and a few other indie
magazines. It wasn’t like Everlasting was unknown, because a lot of
places we went when we were on tour with Ignite the Flames, people
asked for the guys autographs every time.

My turn soon enough.

“They want us to perform with Ignite the
Flames?”

Cale was having another one of his
meltdowns. He’d been having them more frequently ever since the
video shoot. It wasn’t like he was over reacting, but certainly
enough to piss all of us off. Walker had called us and said that
the Rock the Children foundation for children with cancer wanted us
to perform at their annual charity festival the day our album
released.

With Ignite the Flames of course.

Me? I was looking forward to it. I loved the
idea behind the charity, founded by Ace Patterson’s dad, legendary
rocker Harley Patterson, after Ace’s little brother Carter died of
brain cancer when Ace was 5 years old. Every year they put the
festival on in the downtown Pontiac area where some big named bands
would get together and perform over three days to support the cause
and raise money for local children with cancer.

“What’s the big issue, bro? We spent a whole
tour with those guys.” Luke tried to mellow Cale down, but he
pushed Luke towards the wall of our practice garage.

“I don’t give a shit. Charming tried putting
his hands on Bryn way back when. I don’t trust the fucker.” Cale
was seething, his hands curling into fists.

Luke steadied himself and pushed Cale back
square in the shoulders as hard as he could. “You need to chill
out. None of us need this shit, Pelton. Whatever is with you and
Damon needs to be squashed. If you want to back out of the
festival, by all means do it. But I’ll be damned if you treat us
like you’re the fucking king.” Luke readjusted his thick glasses
and crossed his arms in front of him.

Cale started pacing back and forth, not
saying a word. He kept his head low so his hair was covering the
rest of his face.

“Just let him be, Bryn,” Luke whispered in
my ear, draping his arm around my shoulder. “He can’t get away with
these bull-shit tantrums over stupid stuff like Damon
Charming.”

I felt at ease and leaned into my friend.
Cale had me shaken up; I didn’t know what to think. I needed to
stand by the man I was in love with, but enough was enough.

Tyler walked up to Cale and stopped him from
pacing. He whispered something to him that I couldn’t comprehend,
but whatever he said made Cale stand up a little straighter and
calm down.

“I’ll call him and let him know we’ll do
it,” Cale mumbled, snatching his cell phone from on top of one of
the practice amps and walking away to place the call. He came back
a couple of minutes later with a satisfied look on his face. “We’re
headlining the last night, lady and gentlemen!”

“No fucking way,” Vince said, sounding
surprised. “The last night’s the biggest crowd. Holy shit, I can’t
believe it.”

“Why’s the last night the biggest crowd?” I
asked out of curiosity.

“Because that’s saved for the bands that are
like rock royalty. Last year frickin’ Harley Patterson headlined.
He’s a damn god,” Vince joked.

“Yeah. Walker said it sounded like it’ll be
us and Flames headlining, and Ace is performing a few acoustic
songs after us as kind of an encore, but he wasn’t sure,” Cale
replied, running a hand through his sweaty hair. Then he faced me.
“This is huge, B. Festivals are crazier than putting on a whole
tour.”

“Not too much longer.” I smiled. “We’ll have
to figure out what we’re playing.”

We stayed at the warehouse until we had a
list of songs to perform for our timeslot at the festival. I had
never worked so hard in my life and it seemed like it was paying
off. My first album, headlining a festival, another tour? I don’t
think I could ever get enough of this. When we were locking up the
warehouse and heading home, I got a text from Lucy.

Lucy: BRYNNNN! Can’t wait to see you in
another week or so girl. Missed you!

Me: Miss you too, Luce. It’ll be good to
finally see another girl instead of being cooped up with these boys
recording.